March 28 (Bloomberg) -- The Inter-American Development Bank
has agreed to loan Spain’s Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica $41.4
million to develop three photovoltaic-solar projects in Chile’s
Atacama desert as the nation seeks to diversify its energy
supply.

The plants will have 26.5 megawatts of capacity and supply
power to mining companies Cia. Minera Dona Ines de Collahuasi
SCM and Corp. Nacional del Cobre de Chile, the Washington-based
lender said today in a statement.

Chile is seeking to more than double the contribution of
renewable energy to its power supply over the next decade,
according to the statement. The nation got about half its
electricity from fossil fuels including coal, oil and natural
gas in 2020, the International Energy Agency, said on its
website.

“This project has a lot of upside,” Jean-Marc Aboussouan,
chief of the infrastructure division of the IDB’s structured and
corporate finance department, said in the statement. “It helps
reduce the country’s carbon footprint and is in line with the
priorities of both Chile and the bank.”

Half of the funds will be furnished from the IDB’s own
capital and half will come from the Canadian Climate Fund for
the Private Sector in the Americas, which is administered by the
bank, according to the statement.

Chile’s mining industry consumes about 18 percent of the
nation’s power, according to the statement.